I feel so grateful that NHK is showing the event! Finally I can watch (delayed) skating competition on TV in my own living room!

Joubert looked great! So happy for him, so happy. He landed all the jumps (well, almost). He was on. The performance looked absolutely exciting, and the audience was loving it! I'm totally OK with his placement over Jeremy Abbott's. While I loved Jeremy's performance and program very much, I thought Joubert was more exciting in terms of audience appeal. After the disastrous TEB event, he really needs this kind of performance. Hope he can keep up his momentum and does a great long tomorrow.
(His face looked very thin. Has he always looked so thin this season? I watched him mostly through low-quality youtube clips and web broadcasting. So maybe I just didn't notice it. I hope he has a dietitian on call)

Poor Taka chan. I bet he really wanted to perform well in front of Yuka Sato, his choreographer, his favorite skater, and now his competitor's coach. Too bad things didn't go as he wished. Well, better luck tomorrow!

Did Johnny have an edge call? He landed everything cleanly (finally! about time!) but still didn't exceed 80. I still don't like his music choice, but the program looked much much better when he landed all the jumps, and I finally felt I could somehow enjoy it. And his final facial expression was just wow! I loved that close-up.

Was Takahashi trying to channel some drunk man in that step sequence? The NHK announcers sounded just as perplexed as I did.

Too bad that NHK didn't show Adam Rippon's short. Judging from the score, not a great performance from him, I assume.

Anyway, I felt very happy to see the men even though NHK only showed six of them. I recorded ladies event from earlier, but I don't think I wanted to watch it today. I want to keep my happy mood.

Thank you for linking to all this videos! Only watched Joubert for now. Am surprised how much I enjoyed him! Normally not a fan of his style. I guess it's like with Plushenko, when he's on and self-confident he just develops great command on the ice. Somehow even the cheesy choreography seemed cool. And yeah, that's definitely Staviski's shirt...would say that recycling Maxim's outfits would be generally an improvement over what Brian usually wears. Should stay away from the white trousers perhaps. But mostly it was just good to see Brian finally happy with himself and his performance.

It may have been the camera angle, but to me it looked like the start of Joubert's program has been, well, shall we say - toned down a bit? The ending pose is definitely different from last season. He looked so relieved at the end - I can't imagine how much pressure he must be under.

I'll look at the others later.

Susie - Brian has said that he gains and loses weight easily. He did say he was trying to slim down a bit earlier this season, and I guess he managed it. He looks pretty thin right now but not ill like he did a couple of seasons ago.

It may have been the camera angle, but to me it looked like the start of Joubert's program has been, well, shall we say - toned down a bit? The ending pose is definitely different from last season. He looked so relieved at the end - I can't imagine how much pressure he must be under..

Buttercup, it has definetely been toned down, I noticed it too.. I guess they wanted him to look more serious, hence the costume change and less hip shake.. Aww, a shame though cos as cheesy as it it, I just love it..
His face totally showed how much pressure he's under.. I just hope tomorrow the quad sal won't destroy his spirit and his programme again..

Love Brain SP. This what male figure skating should be about. Lots of energy, difficult jumps and flirting with the fans.

Totally different from all those wishy washy soft program out there.

Dai-chan: Great comeback. This is totally different competition form Nelbone Trophy so I don't except his score will be over the top, just around 80. Too bad about the fall during the footwork, but then it's nothing major. Only 7 points from the lead, so that is pretty much just one jump away.

Abbott was great. The jumps are there. Although he could difinitely have done so much better with his style of skating, just not too crazy about the slow music.

Johnny was on, an improvement from last event. Lets hope he can maintain his momentum.

Takahiko! What happened? If he finished out of the podium, does it mean he be out of the final? Can he still make it with just a silver and 4th place? He has lots of catching up to do.

But then again one Gold (Plushy) and Chan wouldn't be in GPF, so it's be interesting to see what is the cut line.

Great competition so far! Overall, men's competitions this year are WAY more interesting to watch than the ladiezzzz.

Good for the 'old guys' to outskate the 'new guys' by all means.

So happy for Brian, he finally ditched the old costume of his SP and skated to his potential! I was tired of that program at TEB but got the new excitement again. Way to go Brian, that's the way to skate if you want to challenge Plushy!

I really love Jeremy Abbott's SP this year, he reminded me a lot of Jeff Buttle. Now we have multiple quadless guys who can beat Plushy's score, Oda, Abbott, Chan... Really want to see how the judges will rank them in the same competition if everybody skates cleanly.

Welcome back Dai! Great comeback! He'll pull a monster's score had he not made those small mistakes. For Kozuka, not a bad performance, he's only 1 point lower than his CoR score I think, but the placement is much lower just because the men's field in Russia was really weak. Japanese nationals will be very intersting and exciting. At this point, it's really hard to tell who is the No.1 guy from Team Japan. All 3 are so good!

Joubert performance was excellent, it fits his style. Loved his quad and triple axel. As for his clothes i think its to do with his mama. i think she probably told he looks best in black. hope to see a clean skate from Joubert tomorrow.

Originally Posted by ae9177

Great competition so far! Overall, men's competitions this year are WAY more interesting to watch than the ladiezzzz.

Good for the 'old guys' to outskate the 'new guys' by all means.

So happy for Brian, he finally ditched the old costume of his SP and skated to his potential! I was tired of that program at TEB but got the new excitement again. Way to go Brian, that's the way to skate if you want to challenge Plushy!

I really love Jeremy Abbott's SP this year, he reminded me a lot of Jeff Buttle. Now we have multiple quadless guys who can beat Plushy's score, Oda, Abbott, Chan... Really want to see how the judges will rank them in the same competition if everybody skates cleanly.

Even though plushy landed quad he doubled his lutz, therefore any advantage he gained by landing the quad was lost. He lost around 4 to 5 points for doubling (base value plus potential GOE), so plushy could have got around 87 points and oda, and abbott did not score that. As for Joubert he too left some points on the landing of 3LZ. Quad is giving some buffer to those who are landing it in sp. though base value of LP score of most skaters seems to be much closely packed.

Good job to Joubert for landing his quad and 3x and the nicely done program... let see if he can keep up the consistency in the free skate. However, I'm pulling for Jeremy and Johnny! Hope they can do well in the free and stay on the podium. However, Takahashi and Kozuka are breathing down their necks (especially Johnny's) so they must skate clean. Poor Rippon. Hope he can recover in the free but he has a lot of tough competitors ahead of him. No matter, he must just go for it all in the free as if he has nothing to lose (and he doesn't). This is a really strong men's field.

Well, Johnny skated okay and his jumps were there but seemed to leave out some content if you asked me. Hoping for more tomorrow....

So, can someone please explain what was missing from Johnny's program and why his scores weren't higher? Sorry if it's already been discussed but I can't seem to find it...
Anyhow, nice to see the smile back on his face and I still love his skating. He seemed to have won the stuffed animal contest anyway Good for him!
Soooooooo nice to see the top three all have clean performances. I LOVED Jeremy today. And so happy for Yuka Sato!
Let's hope they all stay clean tomorrow.

Can anybody inform me about Jeremy Abbott? Seriously, who is he? How old? Has he ever been to Nationals? If so, what placement(s)? And anything else you can think of, thanks!

Jeremy has been around for a long time. I think he is 24. He won the Grand Prix final last year and I think he won Nationals. (My bad?) He had a poor result at worlds, but last year was his breakthrough year. He found consistency last year. Just changed coaches this season to Yuka Sato . Looks like he is on point now. He has a "winner" short. Watch for his quad in the long. He can do it,, but used to get "off point" after completing or attempting it. I wish him all the best, but I am still a Johnny fan...